Friday, August 17, 2012

Arnie the beagle has proven once and for all that he has an expensive taste, as well as a criminal streak, when the thieving pooch snacked on $300 that he pilfered from his owner’s bag under the cover of darkness.

While Arnie’s owners slept in their Clearwater, Florida, home, the furry bandit was tearing through the house, apparently looking for something tasty to nosh on.

Not before long, the pup came across a Coach purse on the kitchen counter and went to town on a stack of bills that he discovered inside, chewing through nearly every single one of them, Bay News 9 reported..

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Furry pickpocket: Arnie the beagle stuck his nose into his owner's purse and made a meal out of $300 in cash he found inside In the morning, owner Corey O'Kelley found a $20 bill that was still intact and a $5 bill that bore the tell-tale marks of Arnie’s teeth.

‘She came flying out of the bedroom saying, 'Oh no! Oh no!'’O’Kelley recalled when his wife found out what had happened to their hard-earned cash.

‘She started going through it and realized that the dog had eaten all of it except for that 20 and that ripped up five,’ O’Kelley told Bay News.

Bad dog: The money Arnie wolfed down was intended for his owners' daughter's swimming lessons

The O’Kelley family have been saving the money that ended up in Arnie’s stomach for their daughter’s swimming lessons.

And as it turns it, the seemingly pleasant beagle with the innocent eyes is a repeat offender with a taste for dead presidents.

According to O’Kelley, Arnie committed the same offense about seven years ago when he wolfed down $100.

Ripped to shreds: Of the $300 that was in the bag, only $20 survived intact, while another $5 got slightly chewed up

The dog owner explained that at the time, they received $150 as a gift from his father-in-law and put the cash on a coffee table. The following morning, O’Kelley took Arnie out for his walk and discovered a corner of a $50 in his feces.

In the end, O'Kelley managed to recover two intact $50 bills in his pooch’s ‘piles’ and was able to exchange them at the bank.

This time around, however, the pooch has proven more through in his task, and it is unlikely the O’Kelleys will piece together all of the shredded cash.

Criminal past: O'Kelley has revealed that his rascally pooch chewed up $100 seven years ago, but they had managed to salvage the bills

‘It looks like our optimism is escaping us, because it looks like he systematically tore every single bill apart and swallowed it,’ O’Kelley said.

The Florida family may be in luck, however. Some banks will trade in the money if the serial numbers are clearly visible.